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In 2021 and 2023, we were brought on by 3 Dots Downtown to organize the Creative Communities Convening — a two-day gathering that brought together more than 200 creative placemakers, community organizers, arts center leaders, and innovation ecosystem builders from across the mid-Atlantic region.
By tapping into the collective wisdom of the crowd, this “unconference” let attendees shape the agenda, ensuring discussions stayed relevant to the work they were leading in their own communities. The goal was to connect key leaders, cross-pollinate ideas, and explore the intersection of arts, technology, and equity. Participants left with a deeper appreciation of what it takes to build vibrant communities and a renewed sense of purpose to bring those ideas home.
what we did
- Organized the two-day unconference in both 2021 and 2023 (200+ attendees from across the mid-Atlantic)
- Organized 20+ themed field trips to local creative spaces
- Trained participants on our Community Guided Method
- Hosted a WikiBlock placemaking workshop and generative AI art demonstrations at a local makerspace
- Produced immersive interactive art (including a community-built 16-foot Molok puppet) and after-hours celebrations
how we did it
Open Space and World Café sessions
The World Café discussions invited participants to explore how the region might look different with truly engaged, connected creative communities. Bouncing between small groups, they worked through three questions: what’s important to you about designing creative communities, and why do you care? What are you missing, or in need of more of, to build your ideal creative community? And what conversation, begun today, could ripple out to create new possibilities for the future of our region? In parallel, Open Space sessions let participants lead on the topics they were most passionate about and map out concrete action steps for collaborations they wanted to pursue together.
Field trips and Deep Listening sessions
One of the convening’s biggest draws was the chance to visit more than 20 local creative spaces, organized around themes like Arts in the Outdoors, Downtown Innovation and Placemaking, Linking Towns through Arts and Food, Arts and Education, Small Town Revitalization, and Museums Galore — each offering inspiration and practical insight to bring home. We also guided outdoor Deep Listening sessions where participants strengthened relationships and built a community of practice to lean on after the convening ended, training them along the way in our community-building framework.
The Interactive Molok Puppet – collaboratively built and performed by the community during the final evening of the convening.
Immersive puppet performance and after-hours celebrations
In the evenings, interactive art installations brought the community together. The centerpiece was the Molok — a new fairytale about memory and the importance of community, told through a 16-foot-tall live-action puppet built entirely from donations by the surrounding community. It showed participants what’s possible with arts centers and gave them a concrete example to collaborate on: after the event, multiple groups chose to host the Molok in their own communities and design their own interactive exhibits.
WikiBlock placemaking workshop and generative AI art demonstrations
Hosting portions of the event at a local makerspace, we also introduced participants to WikiBlock — an open-source database of designs that placemakers can use to enliven their towns — and they built their own furniture out of nothing more than sheets of plywood. Alongside it, we ran interactive demonstrations on generative AI technology and the role it could play in surfacing new forms of creative expression.
